Tuesday, November 14, 2017

Paddington 2 - Sequel to that Cute Lovable Kind Naive Bear Movie

This movie was already playing in Indonesian cinemas last Friday and funnily enough, my wife and I did not really feel it was a very good one and we did not provide time to see this in the theater the past few days. Usually if we were serious, we would have seen it no matter what the condition was. Today finally we decided to see the movie in the theater nearest to our home, after I completed my work and my wife finished her event. The studio was filled with only around 10 people, which was probably due to weekday. Well let us move on to the movie now.

Brief Story Line

The story was told not long after the events in original movie where Paddington (voiced by Ben Whishaw - In the Heart of the Sea, Skyfall, Spectre etc) was now having a nice life with the Brown family. He was very friendly towards everyone around him and they all loved him for that. In order to celebrate the 100th birthday of her beloved aunt Lily (voiced by Imelda Staunton - Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix, Vera Drake etc), Paddington was looking for the perfect present in antique store owned by Mr. Gruber (Jim Broadbent - Harry Potter series, Game of Thrones TV series etc). He finally found it in the form of a pop-up book with London's famous landmarks. However, the price was too expensive and hence Paddington had to work and start saving some money, which proved to be not as easy as he thought.

Meanwhile, a washed up artist/performer named Phoenix Buchanan (Hugh Grant - Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill etc) somehow found out about the same book and he was really interested in getting his hands on it. He was even willing to do anything even illegally to obtain the book. Unfortunately it would implicate Paddington in ways he could not have imagine. With Paddington in trouble, the Browns stuck together just like previously to save Paddington. They would also be assisted by unlikely ally of Knuckles (Brendan Gleeson - Edge of Tomorrow, Assassin's Creedetc) and his friends.

So could the Browns save Paddington and expose Phoenix' plan? Could Paddington get the perfect present to his aunt? Find them all in this fun, loving adventure comedy family movie.

End of Brief Story Line

Just like in the original movie, this one was also truly a family movie. Almost the same formula was used in here where Paddington, being a naive, friendly kind bear caught in trouble due to the bad things done by the villain, and had to be rescued by the Browns. There was definitely a lot of laugh and love around in this movie. So get ready for some funny moments and of course some touching emotional moments.

The movie itself focused on the feel-good factor that you would experience when watching it and especially the happiness and emotional sensation after the climax scene in the end. However, this movie was not a very deep one filled with intelligent conversation. Instead it was a light movie filled with scenes where we would be feeling happy or sad for Paddington. Of course some of the things were also a little bit illogical and have a sense of absurdity in it, but we could still tolerate and just enjoy the movie. It was made purely to be enjoyed by the whole family and I think it would be nicer to see this one during Christmas period. I do not know why, but it had a Christmas aura in the movie.

The CGI to create Paddington was as nice as the original film, but I especially love the scenes shown during the imagination of Paddington when he was looking at the pop-up book. It was very nice and wonderful to see it and I could actually experience what he was imagining. The Brown family affection and of course the whole neighborhood's appreciation towards Paddington was very lovely to see as well. And be reminded to see the warm feeling when you see the scene involving Brendan Gleeson and his friends. There was a fun mid credit scene that you could enjoy too, but no end credit scene.

In the end, this movie was just to be enjoyed and not to be overly thought. You would need to have good imagination and also better to have watched the original movie to have better appreciation of Paddington and the Browns relationship. But even if you did not see the first one, I think you could still understand the movie as it was not too overly complicated. My wife and I were pretty entertained with the movie, especially my wife who had some emotional moments in the touching scenes. We were definitely glad to have seen this one, even though a bit late. The only thing I quite regret was the scenes of the trailer were a bit too much and some of the funny scenes were already shown there.

So if you are looking for a family friendly movie with some of those funny moments plus if you want to enjoy seeing that cute cuddly bear with his naivety and kindness to brighten up your day, this one definitely would be a good choice.

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Special Note:

I never claim to be a movie critic. This blog only represent my personal view and movie experience. It is not meant to be a smart analysis of the feature of the films like script, musical score, acting, directing or any such things. If you are looking for any of that stuff, other blogs may suit you better.